


Peanut Butter Cups (An Interlude)

by Trekkele



Series: A Townie, A Linguist, And Several Kinds Of Tea. [11]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, dadmiral pike fixes his mistake, or at least he tries too, there is candy involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 19:38:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17453030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trekkele/pseuds/Trekkele
Summary: Chris and Jim maybe kind of sort of discuss their feelings and what happened after Jim beat Spock at chess.Sequel to Tea, Raspberry, Hot.





	Peanut Butter Cups (An Interlude)

**Author's Note:**

> credit belongs to redford, I fully intended on not posting anything today. I appreciate the assist.
> 
> (that is to say, I had nothing to post and them I read their comment and realized Chris would totally binge candy when he thinks he messed up.)

“Peanut Butter Cup?” Jim raises his eyebrows at Chris’s outstretched hand, accepting the chocolate with a huff and a grin.

“What’s got you nervous?” he pops one of the mini cups into his mouth, chewing carefully and eternally grateful that both cocoa and peanuts were not on his extensive allergy list. By the grace of whatever god, because he would never survive without chocolate.

“Why do you think I’m nervous?” Chris asks around a mouthful of candy, looking more like a kid in the principal's office then Jim does, despite that fact that he _is_ the principal, (or, Commandant of Cadets, at least) and Jim is the one who told him to fuck off in front of some colleagues recently.

He wondered how much trouble he was in because of that.

Shrugging his shoulders Jim takes a nibble out of the second cup and stares at some point over Pikes shoulder. “Mom always said you eat candy like a three old when your anxious or nervous. And there's an empty pack of candy bars in the trash over there.” Chris curses gently, leaning over his desk to glare at the traitorous trash bin. As if he hadn’t put it there himself.

“She never shuts about you, you know.” he says, still glaring at the trash. He looks up at Jim before he continues. “It’s always _Jim this_ , and _Sam that_ , and _my boys are geniuses wait till you here what they did now_.”

He’s not distracted enough by the candy to miss the grin Chris gives him. It’s almost an apology, almost an excuse, but not really.

“Yeah, she’s my mom. She’s supposed to do that.” He’s ninety percent sure she isn’t supposed to keep his crayon drawings from when he was _three_ , but he really wasn’t going to argue with Winona Kirk. There lies madness, and he should know better then to try. Besides, it was ... nice, the way she was proud no matter what he did. Well, no matter what he did, within reason.

“And I’m your godfather, Jim.” Chris was watching him with worried eyes, and the kind of guilt that usually led to late bedtimes and extra dessert when he was kid, but he wasn't sure what the equivalent was for adulthood.

Peanut Butter Cups, apparently.

“So, what? This was all a big misunderstanding and you _weren’t_ trying to show me off like some kind of prized beagle?” Jim shoved the rest of the peanut cup into his mouth and leaned forward to grab some more.

Chris smirked at that, “Beagles are your _other_ Uncle’s territory, you know that,” he said, and he  faded into the same slightly anxious expression he’d been wearing when Jim came in. “Yeah, I was trying to show you off. But not because I think it makes me look good.” Jim snorts at that one, and Chris rolls his eyes dramatically. “Ok, so it makes me look good. It also makes _you_ look good, and reminds everyone that you’re fucking amazing, so we both win.” He frowns, “but to be fair, I really couldn’t think of anyone else on campus who could beat a Vulcan at chess.”

And that's the thing isn’t it? It hadn't only been about all the times Chris called him over to answer a question, or correct someones math, or whatever other little ways he’d been showing him off all the time. It had been annoying, but also nice, in this weird way, to know that someone on campus thought he was worth showing off. Someone who technically had no reason too.

“He used to do the same thing.” he mumbles into the fourth peanut butter cup. “Used have members of the council play chess against me to show them how smart his - _protege -_ was. Course, then he killed them all for treason and I stopped coming to the palace.” Willingly, that is.

“But I still don't like playing chess against people for competition.” He wasn't going to look at Chris. He was not. He was going to eat another candy cup and then they would pretend this never happened.

“I take it that's why you haven't joined the chess club.” Chris asked, and he could hear that dumb grin, the same one that used to sneak him out of medbay to explore the bridge, or that bought him his first hoverbike. The one that hid more unearned guilt than either of them would admit.

“No, they wouldn't let me join because they’re sore losers who can't handle being beaten every time we play.” Chris snorts, and it's funny because he thinks he learnt that particular expression from him, and stands up, gathering padds into different piles and shutting his screen down.

“You’ve never had to prove yourself to me.” he says softly, still staring at the blank screen. “And I can’t believe I let you think differently for so long.”

Jim doesn’t really know what to say to that one, because he had this whole speech prepared, about how Chris’s opinion doesn't matter anyways (that was a lie) because he knew he deserved to be here (that was true) and he didn't care what anyone else thought about it (another lie). But then again, maybe Pike had figured all that out on his own.

“You eat anything but candy today, Oh Captain, my Uncle? Because I am _starving_ , let me tell you, Astrophysics 101 takes _forever_ , and these candy cups are good but I’d need to eat my body weight to be full.” Chris laughs, clapping his hand on Jim’s shoulder and pulling him out of his seat.

“C’mon kid, I’ll buy you lunch.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
